7 trends I spotted in Open Badges in 2019
A retrospective on developments over the course of last year
Last year felt like a significant year for Open Badges. I think a shift took place. As I followed developments through my work editing The Learning Fractal, a monthly magazine on Open Badges and related credentials, I noticed there seemed to be increased usage, awareness and engagement from a wider variety of actors. It felt like the Open Badges movement accelerated, leaving me wondering what is in store for us in 2020.
A note: I use the name Open Badges in the title as a catch-all term but in this post it can be exchanged for other names and related developments, such as badges, digital badges, digital credentials, credentials, micro-credentials, alternative digital credentials, e-certificates, block-certs, badges on the blockchain, etc. Most, if not all of the developments mentioned, will be underpinned by the Open Badges standard.
Trends in 2019
Over the course of 2019, trends began to emerge. These are the 7 most significant trends I spotted:
- The number of badges issued increased signficantly
- Industry engagement with badges increased
- Changing learner demographics provided opportunities for badges
- Alternatives and additions to traditional degrees continued to gain traction
- Frameworks, platforms and backpacks evolved
- People experimented with blockchains
- Discussions about ‘quality’ and terminology continued
The number of badges issued increased significantly
In an update on badges and backpack in 2018, Mark Surman, Executive Director of Mozilla (which created the Open Badges standard) commented that over 15 million badges had been issued since the standard was conceived in 2011. Just one year later, at the end of 2019, however, one estimate suggested nearly 25 million badges have been issued.
IBM alone doubled the number of badges they issued in 2019, from the number they had issued in all the years previously. Having first started issuing badges in earnest in 2015, they issued their one millionth badge in June 2018. By July 2019, they had issued nearly two million badges, in 195 countries.
Industry engagement with digital badges increased
Industry also increased their involvement in the field, with the likes of Amazon, Google and other large companies moving deeper into the postsecondary credentials space by developing credentials themselves or in partnership. In Employers as Educators, an article for Inside Higher Ed, Jim Fong, chief research officer for the University Professional and Continuing Education Association said:
“The message is really more about core competencies and who can do it better, cheaper and faster and whether colleges and universities can do that anymore.” He adds “this might be the shot in the arm that higher education may need to accelerate what may be a slow and bureaucratic process regarding content and credentials needed in the marketplace.”
Executive education students were also more interested in digital badges. An article in Business Because cited a study that found “nearly 75% of executive education students would consider obtaining a ‘micro-credential’, and 63% would work towards a qualification that provides a ‘digital badge’.”
The results of a U.S. national survey by Northeastern University’s Center for the Future of Higher Education & Talent Strategy, suggested that attitudes to digital credentials have changed over the last five years and that employer demand is shaping the future microcredentials market.
“Our 2018 survey of hiring leaders found that a majority — 61% — today believe that educational credentials earned online are of generally equal quality to those completed in-person, a substantial increase from just five years prior.”
Changing learner demographics provided opportunities for badges
According to a report by Innovate+Educate, Shift Happens 2, learner demographics have changed over the past few years. The report showed that “working learners” and “learning workers” now exceed the number of “traditional students” in the U.S (e.g. those studying full time, without jobs).
In the post, Will Your Association’s Credentials Become an Alternative to College, a range of factors were considered to be increasingly affecting students’ desire to follow a traditional degree, leading learners to take more control of their learning pathways. Reasons for this shift included cost, student loan debt, percieved value and the fact that some employers are moving away from degree requirements. Such developments were seen to provide an opportunity for different actors, such as membership associations to play a more significant role in recognising the skills of their members and supporting their continual professional development.
The results of a survey of 500 U.S. students and 500 recruiters also highlighted evolving perceptions of college degrees. Credential clout: How higher education can prepare for an evolving job market pointed to the importance of lifelong learning and digital credentials to help with the changes they forsaw.
Alternatives and additions to traditional degrees continued to gain traction
In The Learner Revolution. How Colleges Can Thrive in a New Skills and Competencies Marketplace, the Education Design Lab commented on the implications of changing learner demographics, stating:
“Within the decade, all but the most exclusive learning providers, old and new, will compete for students at the competency and experience level rather than at the degree level. That is the principal paradigm shift of the Learner Revolution.”
When asked about the future of qualifications, Kirstie Donnelly, the Managing Director of awarding body and related businesses, City & Guilds Group, commented:
“The future of qualifications is changing, it’s been changing now actually for some time.
I think what’s really changing is the need to rethink the currency of what we mean by qualification.
It’s not that the qualification itself aren’t going to be relevant, it’s just that how we think about them, how we build them, how we construct them, how we verify them, probably needs to be different beyond that which we’re used to, which is a kind of single output, outcome at the end, stuck on the wall in the name of a certificate.
That isn’t to say that people still shouldn’t have something that really validates the achievement of whatever it is they’ve studied and learned, but I think it will be a very different currency.
That currency for me will be digital credentials.”
According to Sean Gallagher, executive director of the Center for the Future of Higher Education & Talent Strategy at Northeastern University, this change doesn’t mean digital credentials will entirely replace degrees, however. Contributing to an article on How the Value of Educational Credentials Is and Isn’t Changing, he commented:
“Rather than sweeping away degrees, new types of online credentials — various certificates, MicroMasters, badges, and the like — are instead playing a complementary role, creating the building blocks for newer, more affordable degree programs…. The growing digitization of credentials also heralds a new era of greater transparency for educational outcomes — providing more and better data on which corporate leaders can make hiring decisions… This can help optimize college recruiting strategies; the setting of hiring qualifications; and investment decisions about learning and development and executive education.”
Organisations are creating a variety of solutions to respond to these developments, including community colleges in the U.S. developing stackable credentials, which they hope will provide pathways for students to more advanced academic outcomes and high-quality employment.
Frameworks, platforms and backpacks evolved
A major development in 2019 was the move from the original Mozilla Open Badges Backpack, to Open Badges Backpack 2.0. The backpack provides a central store, where badge earners can store their badges received from a variety of different sources and badge platforms.
Badge platforms generally, also evolved in 2019, with more coming onto the scene.
As well as developments in platforms, new consortia formed, around frameworks and systems. The European MOOC Consortium (EMC) launched a Common Micro-credential Framework (CMF) to provide an international quality-assurance standard for micro-credentials in MOOCs.
A group of nine universities, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also announced a collaboration to build a new digital credential system. The stated aim was to be able to verify digital diplomas and credentials without the need for a human registrar.
Another partnership of 12 universities and 14 companies developed a “generalist digital-technology credential”, which they hope will lead to preferential treatment for recipients with internships and job interviews.
National approaches to badges were also developed, with SURF in the Netherlands creating an infrastructure with which Dutch educational institutions could issue edubadges.
And twitter also became part of the story, with the development of the world’s first Open Badges issuing twitter bot, BadgeBot.
People experimented with blockchains
Blockchain has been on everyone’s lips over the last few of years and extensive research has been undertaken in many sectors to explore how it might be used. In 2019, the U.S. Dept of Education, Office of Educational Technology investigated policy on blockchains and education.
Wayne Skipper of Badgr asked if public blockchains were really ready for prime time in education? He reflected that:
“Market forces, structural vulnerabilities, and new technologies…, make it clear that no vendor can guarantee the long-term integrity of such records. By design, the integrity of the records is outside of any vendor’s control. Therefore, vendor claims that public, currency-based blockchains are suitable for the long term validation of “high stakes” credentials are highly questionable, if not fundamentally flawed.”
Badgr and others, however, started developing a solution they hope will address this potential issue, aiming to “ create a privacy-focused open technology standard that any company can implement in their products.”
Stephen Downes, co-creator of the concept of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), also investigated the blockchain space, developing a proof of concept demonstrating the feasibility of a distributed blockchain-based badge infrastructure in a connectivist MOOC…
“The distributed badging infrastructure… offers a range of potential applications for learning and development. The employment of blockchain-based certificates provides the measure of security and verifiability needed worldwide. Combining this approach with a model of open online education makes such certification more widely accessible. The digital content and badge-based recognition create portable credentials easily shared with potential employers. And the decentralised design of the badge infrastructure enables institutions in all parts of the world to participate as equal partners in the education infrastructure.”
Discussions about ‘quality’ and terminology continued
Finally, as in previous years, the issue of ‘quality’ and Open Badges was a hot discussion point in 2019.
An article in EdSurge highlighted organisations and projects attempting to define ‘quality’ in digital credentials, such as Credential Engine and the National Skills Coalition.
“Credential Engine hopes its database will eventually help people discern which credentials offer the most value for personal learning and employment opportunities”.
The National Skills Coalition, proposed a definition for what counts as a quality non-degree credential.
“A quality non-degree credential is: one that provides individuals with the means to equitably achieve their informed employment and educational goals. There must be valid, reliable, and transparent evidence that the credential satisfies the criteria that constitute quality.”
David Leaser from IBM, however, reflected that the value of Open Badges could be lost if a fixed set of expectations and assumptions constrained their potential. He advocated for better filtering mechanisms, differentiation and use of terms:
“Stop calling credentials “badges.” Jim Daniels, senior manager for IBM’s Global Learning and Credential Strategy, is rebranding the IBM program to properly represent its activities. IBM issues digital credentials, which include learning activities, skills activities, certifications and certificates. Badges, he says, are simply the mechanism to represent the activity and make it consumable.”
What’s next?
Overall, 2019 saw significant developments in the uptake and use of Open Badges. So what does this mean for Open Badges in 2020? In my next post, I’ll look at what the distance travelled in 2019 could mean for where the Open Badges movement might go in 2020 and beyond.
